So here is what it’s all about. For one year we will make our lives a bit more public in order to share what is it is like living on a small family farm in rural America. You will share in our real world, uncensored. You will see how we do what we do, how we live, how we make ends meet or not, what we eat, what we raise, in general how we live. You can ask us questions, we reply back in the blog.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Morning from the mountain

I am so sorry I have not been posting, I have limited access to a computer right now. I took the DELL back as it could not be easily downloaded, and after 15 days, I gave up. It would have been fine if they would have told me the chip-set for the wireless board, but they chose to keep it a big secret. DELL Like other computer companies seems to have a lot of secrets, such as only paying their phone techs at or round $550.00 American dollars per month. I can see why a company like DELL or HP would think they are saving money, but in the long run making the customer happy is saving money. Less tech calls, less repeat tech calls. No one should have to call more than twice to fix something. In the end, I understand where they went wrong and I told them. I think the worst part for me as a retired tech is knowing that this will only get worse as Windows 8 is the most horrible of all the software that I have ever used that was created by Microsoft. It makes Millennium Windows look good, and that is really saying something. Now in all fairness Windows 8 is less a program and more an App. Apps for those who do not know are like mini software programs that phones and tablets use. They have some awesome benefits like taking less memory to run, less processing on both phones and tablets, but are not a replacement for software on a laptop or desk top. What we are seeing is the top of the mountain, in that most people have as much tech as they can use, that puts all computer companies at risk, as very little has changed in the last 10 years other then hard drive size has grow. Most computers being sold still only have four gigs of memory and less than a tig hard drive, but they run Windows 8. I can tell you it is very difficult to find a Windows 7 laptop and when you do, you are often on your own as computer companies will give you little or no help with them. Then there is the cost you are going to pay 40% more over all for a Windows 7 laptop. You may be saying to your self, this is madness, but not so in an industry that needs more buyers and less keepers. If I make it very hard for you to use your desk top or laptop you will buy a tablet, and the cycle will start over as you realize once owner a tablet for half a year or so you will want a desktop or laptop and a year latter you will want a tablet because they have cool apps and are portable, so then what. A new hybrid is most likely in the works, that will be more like the chrome books that use the web as a hard drive. I am not interested in letting some one else have access to all my stuff, I do not have any thing to hide, it is just my stuff and I value my privacy. So next time you buy a device, just pause for a minute and say is this something I want or something I am being conditioned to buy.

Now on to farm matters, we have been selling hatching eggs all over America. I do not make a great deal of money at it,m but I feel it is important to help others to raise their own food or pest control. Lately i have felt that the Post Office is not with me on this venture. I have ordered free boxes, which I once got in four days, now it has been months, I asked my carrier about it and she has not seen them, how odd I thought. On Friday I went to pick some boxes up for the local post office, which is in the middle of farm lands , so to speak and there is a sign on their door..."Post Office Open from 11 am to 1 pm." What madness is this? Turns out the Post Master sets the hours, I know this as I spoke to him about it. He informed me he was fine with it, I on the other hand less so. I am quit un-happy with this as I ship eggs which are time sensitive and I need to be-able to access the post office before 11 am to get my business done. Mind you the only reason they are still in our area is due to the number of boxes we and one other farm ship, but they stand on making it very difficult for me to do so. I am very sad over this, so I have been on hold with the main US post office for now 60 minutes, nice I am glad they care. I tried very hard to work this out on the local level, but no dice. I am now thinking maybe the post office kept my mailing boxes that never arrived and in the back of my mind I am thinking worse thoughts, it is all very sad. I must admit I am not sure why anyone would think it would be a good idea with summer coming to have the office open in the heat of the day when it cost more to keep the building cool, maybe that is why they can not make a money, poor management skills. So eggs will go out late today due to their issues, not mine. In the short of it, doing business with them is bad business for me, maybe when Fed-ex buys them out I will get better service.

My children are loving on a pet butterfly, she was damaged from the storms. Yesterday Elijah carried her about the yard and placed her on the roses to get a meal, he enjoyed watching her eat so much and I delighted in watching him care for this little love. I was awoken to Elisha wanting me to make breakfast for her, which I did, organic sugar water. Elijah has also had a nice time with the little butterfly. He spent almost an hour learning about their life cycle today. He came out and told me she would live around two weeks after she had become a butterfly, it is all too sweet and a good chance to learn to care for even the smallest of farm members.

Speaking of small members, our last set of bees are now in place Italian bees. A good friend of mine went and drove with me to get them...bees were lose everywhere...but we were fine, the bees were not angry with us. After they got here to the farm they seem very happy and productive. I foresee a good relation ship between them and us. Now we have three hives , all a buzz and happy. Lots of honey this fall as they have tons of flowers to chose from. Even with our bee losses last year do to a neighbors careless fire and North Arkansas Electric Coop chemical trespass, we still lost less bees then others in the country. I read the loss of bees this winter was 23 % in America, that is almost a forth of all the domestic bees in America, that is insane. I mean unless you think of the number of GMO crops in the ground and idiots spraying the sides of the roads with chemical cocktails. Then it seems about right, if I had one magical wish it would be that people would wake up and ban the use of GMOS and these chemical cocktails that are killing the bees, wild life and some day us.

Our gardens are doing well and I am still planting, always planting. We have been eating greens from it everyday and with lots of yummy wild greens as well, we are all feeling better. Our Chinese cabbage has started bolting, as I think I have said before and it is amazing how much food we have gotten from this one patch. I have been cutting the flowers off and we put them in with the rest of our greens. You can see the resemblance between the Chinese cabbage and broccoli and it is so yummy. I think for a while longer we will keep doing this, cutting the flowers off and eating them, I can dig up the rest and use them for kimchi any time. We picked more radishes and spinach, wild and domestic. The tomatoes are doing great, peas are starting to make baby peas, I am so happy, I though I would be eating the plants, lol. they are edible and yummy, but we sure could use the peas to can for winter and to dry for winter spouting. Over all the strawberries have done well too...and we have tons of lemon balm and spearmint, our garlic is looking great, potatoes, wow we have so many, pumpkins and corn, yup they and the beans are doing great, oh and our leeks are coming along nice too...I will be on busy caner this season.

Lots of baby chicks everywhere on our farm, the baby goose is so big, I wish I could post photos, but this computer is very old and it is very hard to get it to even post this blog. I am looking for a new laptop and hope to get this all fixed very soon. My website is also suffering, but I do what I can. I believe that G-d will provide an opportunity to find just the right computer for us. So my dears I must go to work, so much needs to be done. I am still on hold with the post office, 88 minutes now, time to milk goats, that should get them to pick up...

About Me

We are transitional farm (becoming organic again), after a company called Asplundah chemical trespassed and sprayed our farm. Feel free to call us at 870-321-6859 to learn more about what happened, and how not to be their victim.

Our little farm is named Mahanaim (Cool old Bible word that means twocamps.